Death Factory — Prophecy of the Black Spider
The two tapes come in a long white tape box with a basic (but effective) black & white artwork which features on the front a Collage (which got banded from Myspace!) by fellow Chicago based surrealistic noise maker Andy Ortmann. So onto the music; each side of tape offers two or three lengthy pieces of grim & at times chocking, horror filled sonics that a rife with slow pulsing feedback buzzers & throbs, grim & evil sound lo-grade synth drifts & suffocations, the odd buried vocal mumble, all manner of clunking & grating tone detail, and the odd more searing & grating rise into more noisy grim, yet punishing out-pourings.
On the whole it’s fairly mixed quality wise with the first tape been very hit ‘n’ miss with some of the tracks really lacking focus or understanding of how to build satisfying & compelling grim atmospheres. It just seems Krause is throwing in elements in a rather haphazard & un -considered manner. Yet at other times (which mainly appear on the second tape, though the first tape has it moments) Krause really mangers to build a very tangible grim, evil & hypnotic feel with the tracks; which fire up that feeling of sleazy dread & horror that the great horror b-movies & sadistic grind house moive had.
So a mixed bag release with some very effective & grim moments here, but also a lot of rather uninspired clunking & analogue synth droning too. It just really feels some editing & thought should have gone into this then we would have had a very rewarding, sickly & dread filled slice of retro synth dwell & old industlism on our hands instead of this very mixed release